Re: VMs: Brumbaugh / 1972 / Milan / numbers...?

["Dana Scott" <dscott520@xxxxxxx>]

Brumbaugh studied and wrote extensively on Plato (e.g. "Plato's Mathematical 
Imagination." Bloomington, 1954). It seems that he was investigating Plato 
in Milan.

"In looking through the margins and diagrams [of the VMs] in the spring of 
1972, I had a bit of luck. Some of the symbols were the same as those of an 
'astrological' diagram which I had seen in Milan added on the back leaf of a 
Plato manuscript. In the diagram, these designs represented numerals (modern 
and archaic, 'Arabic' and Arabian), and this suggested, if the Voynich 
cipher were a remote cousin, that the 'alphabet' of the latter could also be 
numerical. Now, as it happened, this notion was confirmed by a set of 
marginal 'doodles' or 'mystifications' on folio 66r." ("The Most Mysterious 
Manuscript, The Voynich 'Roger Bacon' Cipher Manuscript", edited by Robert 
S. Brumbaugh, Southern Illinois University Press, 1978, p.116).

Regards,
Dana

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rene Zandbergen" <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 12:24 AM
Subject: Re: VMs: Brumbaugh / 1972 / Milan / numbers...?


> Hello John, Nick,
>
> I think you're both right :-)
>
> Worth checking up but it is not very likely to
> be as much the breakthrough as Brumbaugh
> suggests. After all, Brumbaugh did not come up
> with a credible solution to the VMs, and the
> reference seems to have been lost.
> It would have to be in his book. Nick, do you
> have a copy?
>
> Cheers, Rene
>
>
> --- Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > Hi John,
> >
> > >On Wed, 20 Oct 2004, Nick Pelling wrote:
> > > > However, their page 129 might have one thing
> > worth pursuing: that
> > > > "Brumbaugh's first and most important
> > breakthrough was in the spring of
> > > > 1972, when he noticed that some of the
> > Voynichese symbols were similar to
> > > > others [...] on the back of another old
> > manuscript" in Milan, where they
> > > > represented numbers in an astrological diagram.
> > Does anyone know what the
> > > > reference for that other MS is?
> >
> > At 17:56 20/10/2004 -0600, John E Koontz replied:
> > >Worth pursuing, but a fair number of Voynichese
> > characters look like
> > >something *somewhere*, often numerals or
> > abbreviatory notae.  Plausible,
> > >but not very helpful explanations would be that
> > there are only so many
> > >simple shapes one can easily make with a quill, or,
> > again, that certain
> > >canonical shapes appeal to human minds.
> >
> > Perhaps it would be more pragmatic to retain an open
> > mind as to the
> > relevance of this other MS? Until such time as we
> > can see ourselves what
> > Brumbaugh was so inspired by in 1972, the jury
> > should remain out, surely?
> >
> > Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
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